Ashes To Go? No!

You may have heard of it or seen it - a new fad for Ash Wednesday called "Ashes to go." A pastor or priest goes to a coffee shop, Metro Station, or some other public place and imposes ashes onto the foreheads of any who come and desire them. I think this is a really bad idea. Why?

Well, aside from the fact that I think it is feeding our society's appetite to be "spiritual but not religious" (aka the "I don't have to go to church" movement), this is the real, big problem with it: It gives the Law without the Gospel. Dust you are and to dust you will return, but then no forgiveness in Christ! No resurrection from the death of sin! The person leaves with a sign of sin and death imposed upon them, and the rest is up to them.

Yes, yes, if they are Christians perhaps they know the Gospel. But don't we proclaim it every Sunday because we need to hear it over and over again? Because our world catechizes us with the anti-Gospel? That's why we give it in the Lord's Supper, too!

As a theologian once said: The Gospel assumed is the Gospel denied. Let's stop this fad and instead proclaim the Gospel. Ashes are no good if Jesus doesn't wash them off of us.

Truth

In the liturgy for Private Absolution, the line that always gets me is this one: "I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most." I almost don't need to say anything else. This seems to sum it all up. All the rest of the confessional liturgy and my own confession of sins is simply an elaboration on this one statement - although it is good that I examine myself and confess my sins specifically. But there, in that one line, is a summary of both tables of the Law and the heart of the matter: I do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and my wrong fear, wrong love, and wrong trust cause me to be and do what I should not.

As much as I hate to acknowledge that, how good it is to do so, and to receive the unlimited grace and forgiveness of my Saviour. And I look up at the cross and see how that statement is true not only of me, but also of my crucified Lord - who lived as if being God did not matter (Philippians 2:6) and was hanging there for me, because I mattered most to Him. And so in Him, everything is changed. In Him, I am restored and forgiven. In Him, I rise off my knees in the resurrection of forgiveness from the death of my sins, to live a new life. How great is that?

Lesson Learned

When e-mails get lost in cyberspace and do not arrive as expected, do not get short with your secretary - it's not her fault. Thanks be to God there is forgiveness for pastors! And thanks be to God for the Christ-like example of forgiveness my secretary is to me. She is two in a million (my wife is the other one in a million!) :-)